Sen Sanders Proposals for the next round of relief

[SBoy]

1. Addressing the Employment Crisis and Providing Immediate Financial Relief
Last week, 3.3 million Americans filed for unemployment. This week that number doubled to 6.6 million claims — 10 times higher than any other week on record. It is certain that well over 10 million people have lost their jobs — more than in the Wall Street crash of 2008.

There is little doubt that we are facing an economic crisis that could be even worse than the Great Depression. The St. Louis Federal Reserve has projected that 47 million people may become unemployed by the end of June, with unemployment reaching 32 percent. We must make sure that every worker in America continues to receive their paycheck during this crisis and we must provide immediate financial relief to everyone in this country.
Keep workers on payroll. Just as other countries have, including the UK, Norway, and Denmark, we must make sure that every worker in America continues to receive their paycheck during this crisis, retroactive to the beginning of the crisis. An important precedent for that approach was taken in the recent stimulus package in which grants were provided to the airlines for the sole purpose of maintaining the paychecks and benefits of some 2 million workers in that industry through September 30th.
Monthly direct payments of $2,000 every person in the country. We must provide direct, recurring, monthly payments to every person in the country, regardless of income, tax filing, or immigration status. That means reaching every person in the United States, including the undocumented, the homeless, the unbanked, and young adults excluded from the CARES ACT.
Guarantee paid medical and sick leave to all workers. Anyone who is sick or who needs to stay home should be able to stay home during this emergency and receive their paycheck. At a time when half of our people are living paycheck to paycheck and must go to work in order to take care of their family, we do not want to see people going to work who are sick and can spread the coronavirus. This is especially important for hourly workers who may not have sufficient — or any — paid sick days to avoid coming into work when feeling ill.
Hazard pay for essential and frontline workers. Workers who are on the front lines of this crisis – including those who work in grocery stores, nurses, warehouse workers, paramedics, pharmacy workers, farmworkers, food processing workers, truck drivers, postal workers, delivery drivers, and janitors – must be provided hazard pay, child care, and safe working conditions. Essential state and municipal workers, such as sanitation workers and transit workers, will receive hazard pay as well, to ensure states and cities have the personnel they need to fight this crisis.
Guarantee funding parity for the territories, tribes, and DC. We must ensure funding parity for all health and economic coronavirus relief programs.
Guarantee these programs to everyone in this country, regardless of immigration status. The coronavirus does not differentiate based on immigration status and our economic and health response must not either. Guaranteeing all residents the assistance they need makes us safer, stronger, and is the morally right thing to do.

2. We Must Guarantee Health Care to All
Let’s be clear: we were facing a catastrophic health care crisis before the pandemic, and now that crisis has become much, much worse. Already, 87 million people are uninsured or underinsured. Layoffs will mean tens of millions of people more will lose their current insurance, which will result in countless deaths and bankruptcies. Already in the last two weeks, an estimated 3.5 million people have lost their employer-sponsored insurance.

And as the pandemic grows, we are seeing more and more reports of people who have delayed treatment due to concerns about cost. In this pandemic, uninsurance will lead to deaths and more COVID-19 transmissions.

Use Medicare to cover all health care expenses. Medicare must be empowered to pay all of the deductibles, co-payments and out-of-pocket healthcare expenses for the uninsured and the underinsured. No one in America who is sick, regardless of immigration status, should be afraid to seek the medical treatment they need during this national pandemic.

3. Use the Defense Production Act to Produce the Equipment and Testing We Need
Unbelievably, in the United States right now, doctors and nurses are unnecessarily putting their lives on the line treating people suffering from the coronavirus because they lack personal protective equipment like masks, gloves, and surgical gowns. The CDC has directed health professionals to use homemade gear like bandanas or scarves, and some workers at the VA are being told to re-use one surgical mask for a week at a time. HHS estimated that our country needs 3.5 billion masks in response to this crisis. We must protect our frontline health care workers and immediately take all measures necessary to manufacture and distribute all the protective equipment, tests, and medical supplies that we need.

Immediately and forcefully use the Defense Production Act to direct the production of all of the personal protective equipment, ventilators and other medical supplies needed. President Trump has utilized the Defense Production Act thousands of times for the military and for enforcement of his immigration policies, yet he has resisted using its power to save lives during the pandemic. That is unacceptable. We must also use this authority to produce antibody tests so we can begin figuring out who has already contracted the virus and has developed some immunity to COVID-19.
Safety standards for health care workers. OSHA must adopt a strong emergency standard to protect health care workers, patients, and the public during this crisis.
Crack down aggressively on price gougers and hoarders, and use any means necessary to secure supplies. Companies and individuals who are using this crisis as an opportunity to turn a profit at the expense of human lives and public safety will be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

4. Make Sure No One Goes Hungry
Even before this crisis hit, one in every seven kids in America was going hungry and nearly 5.5 million seniors in our country struggled with hunger. Already in this crisis we see lines at food banks and growing concern that our most vulnerable communities and those recently unemployed may struggle to feed their families. We must ensure we are getting food to the most vulnerable in our communities and guarantee no person goes hungry during this crisis.

Increase SNAP benefits and expand SNAP and WIC. As communities face record levels of food insecurity, we must increase SNAP benefits, expand eligibility, and expand the WIC program for pregnant mothers, infants, and children.
Expand the Emergency Food Program. Double funding for the Emergency Food Program (TEFAP) to ensure food banks have food to distribute.
Expand Meals on Wheels and school meals programs. Where necessary, we must also develop new approaches to deliver food to vulnerable populations — including door-to-door drop offs.

5. Provide Emergency Aid to States and Cities
Even as state and local employees like police officers, firefighters and paramedics work on the front lines of this pandemic, states and cities that pay their salaries are facing enormous budgetary pressures. The costs of fighting the coronavirus combined with a drop in tax revenue for states and municipalities due to social distancing measures and economic conditions threaten to leave our states and cities without the resources they need to respond to this pandemic. We must provide federal support for states and municipalities to weather this crisis.

Direct fiscal aid to states and cities. Congress must provide $600 billion in direct fiscal aid to states and cities to ensure they have the personnel and funding necessary to respond to this crisis.
The Federal Reserve must support states and municipalities. The Federal Reserve must establish programs to provide direct fiscal support and budgetary relief to states and municipalities.

6. Suspend Monthly Payments
Even before this crisis, half of the people in our country were living paycheck to paycheck. In America today, over 18 million families are paying more than 50 percent of their income on housing. Now, with growing unemployment, families are facing financial ruin if we do not act quickly and boldly.

Suspend monthly expenses like rent, mortgage payments, medical debt, and consumer debt collection for four months. We must ensure that these payments are not deferred, coming due as soon as the emergency is lifted, but completely suspended.
Cancel all student loan payments for the duration of this crisis. More than 45 million Americans struggle with $1.6 trillion in student debt. We must lift this burden and cancel student debt payments for the duration of this crisis. Long-term, we must cancel all student debt and make public colleges, universities, and trade schools tuition free and debt free.
Place an immediate moratorium on evictions, foreclosures, and utility shut-offs. No one should lose their home during this crisis and everyone must have access to clean water, electricity, heat and air conditioning. And we must restore utility services to any customers who have had their utilities shut off.

https://berniesanders.com/issues/priorities-next-coronavirus-relief-package/

This looks like the right package to keep this Country out of Depression

[katmondoo]

1. Sanders is coming next on Ali Velchi, I am turning it off. NOW

[Tarheel_Dem]

6. So did I. As long as BS remains in a race he can't win, he's irrelevant AFAIC. n/t

[George II]

8. Unfortunately I was scheduled to rearrange my sock drawer just as he came on - missed him!

[comradebillyboy]

9. He's still on.

Why on earth did Velshi give him an entire half hour?

[violasays]

17. This is a problem

Why are TV hosts still asking Senator Sanders on their show? When there is legislation being worked on, that's one thing. But this is continuing the horse race.

[Kahuna]

20. Velshi is a Berner. Along with Melber and Hayes. nt

[redstatebluegirl]

2. Go away Bernie! You are going to cost us the election.

You have not gotten one single bill that you scream about passed.

[TwilightZone]

3. Who is he working with in Congress to get this all accomplished?

[comradebillyboy]

10. Bernie would never lower himself to work with people

that don't meet his purity standard.

[Demsrule86]

4. The ACA should be used not Medicare...as it simply is not equipped to do what Sanders wants...it

would be a clusterfuck...and drain the Social Security account.

[msongs]

5. the govt just bought a new boatload of Bernie's F-35s. like we dont have better use for the billions

[George II]

7. Did he get a draft of Chuck Schumer's bill?

[ismnotwasm]

11. Monthly payments of $2000.00 regardless of income?

Not all of this is bad, but this is not the right package for anything

[comradebillyboy]

12. I am not a rich guy but giving me and extra 2k per month is

foolish. Maybe give aid to people who need it. Not all of us need it.

[ismnotwasm]

15. That's what a was thinking

A sliding scale based on income. I’m not rich either, but with free 2k,? I’d probably buy a new set of kitchen appliances.

[George II]

18. That's my thought. Just blindly giving that much to every adult

We're retired, we have a decent income between combined pensions and Social Security and certainly don't need it (we're not rich)

We'll probably give a lot of our $2400 stimulus check to food banks. People who can should consider that.

I did some research - $40 provides 100 meals, $100 provides 250, $1,000 provides 2500 meals. That's a BIG help these days for people who aren't working.

[beastie boy]

13. Great. All he needs to do now is get co-sponsors, introduce the bill in the Senate, & get it passed.

And if Trump vetoes it, get 2/3 majority to override it. Easy as pie!

...He is still a Senator, isn't he? He knows how lawmaking works, doesn't he?

[MineralMan]

14. Every voter in this country knows that none of that is possible.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

16. Nobody cares what Bernie thinks any more.

[la-trucker]

19. Sanders who?

[we can do it]

21. 👈🏻Blah blah blah☝🏼 Drop the fuck out BS.

Too tiring to try reading.

[BidenBacker]

22. LOL...man, I just love reading many of these DU comments

Most of you folks are pretty damn funny and humor is a sign of high intelligence. Which is probably why you can count the number of conservative comedians on one hand and still have a few fingers and a thumb left over.

But back to the topic at hand...if we were gonna go down the "free monthly handout checks" route, I would much rather vote for Yang instead of Sanders to implement it. Yang was a bit of a flip but at least he has some actual experience running businesses and the guy truly understands technology and how automation rather than globalization is by far the biggest threat to workers going forward. Nothing Bernie has said indicates to me that he has the slightest clue.

I really hope that President Biden finds a spot for Yang in the next administration because IMO he would be a valuable asset to have.

[The Magistrate]

23. This Has Been Another Episode Of Lame Comments From No One In Particular, Sir

"From Bernie’s perspective, dropping out of a race once you have no chance of winning is peculiar behavior that can only be explained by the work of a hidden hand. For most politicians, though, it is actually standard operating procedure. Only Sanders seems to think the normal thing to do once voters have made clear they don’t want to nominate you is to continue campaigning anyway."





"When things are not called by their right names, what is said cannot make sense. When what is said does not make sense, what is planned cannot succeed. When plans do not succeed, people become uneasy. When people are uneasy, punishments do not fit crimes. When punishments do not fit crimes, people cannot know where to put hand or foot."

[Hortensis]

24. If Sanders were SINCERE, he'd be ranking member

on at least one important committee and working hard to get a Democratic majority so he could be chair. Instead he's self-exiled himself from power for nearly 30 years, which is quite a trick for a U.S. senator.